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VICTORIAN DRAMA
Drama was not very popular in Victorian times, yet there are 2 interpreters of drama:
 G
...
Shaw  he is an Irish dramatist important because he introduced the dramatic theory
of Ibsen by writing The quintessence of Ibsenism
...
Ibsen is important because he changed
the panorama of drama in Britain
...

The Restoration comedies were produced after 1660, the year of the coming back of the King
Charles II after the Civil War (the puritan period)
...
The structure of the theatres changed (no more circular roofs with people
standing) and became more similar to ours: more attention paid to the scenery and costumes, etc
...

There is a radical change between the comedies of manners and Shaw’s idea of what should be
represented in a play
...

There is a connection between Hardy (Tess goes away the Victorian rules - she is a pure woman
faithfully represented) and Shaw, but this time from a stage, which is even more effective
...
He develops some of the themes dealt in his novels (in the Picture of Dorian
Gery, the snobbery and hypocrisy of the Victorians, their attention to appearances, etc
...
In The importance of being Ernest, Wilde aims at making people laugh at their own
weaknesses
...
There is a combination of three elements:
o Social criticism
o Concern for moral values
o The clash between appearance and reality are combined
...
By choosing the name Ernest,
the dramatist makes in the whole comedy a pun (gioco di parole) of which the Victorian men were
aware
...
Beckett  Theatre of the absurd
 J
...
Philosophically, Beckett was influenced by the existentialism of Sartre and
Camus
...
He felt that since French was not his native
language, he was forced to use language in a more effective way
...
Vladimir and Estragon are the 2 characters waiting for Godot, who will never come
...

The storyline of the play is really uneventful, cause not much happens
...
and E
...
The simplicity of the
scenery and the questioning of the characters, who generally find no answers to their questions,
tends to reproduce B’s idea of existence
...
The
only element that would save them from the desolation of life would be the coming of Godot, but
Beckett chooses not to make it come
...
also focuses on the drama of the un-word
(communication lies to it)  his characters, by not pronouncing words, express their thoughts
...

Happy Days  long monologue of a lady in her fifties covered by the ground till the neck
...


OSBORNE

In 1956, Osborne first performs the play “Look back in anger”
...
University is both negative and positive, because access to university implied
belonging to a certain social class (elitarian condition), but in those years the so-called Oxbridge
generation was born (fusion of Oxford and Cambridge), which referred to all those universities
which were not the so-called exclusive universities
...

Osborne belongs to this generation and he voices the disillusionment, uneasiness, feeling and fears
of his generation, as well as the inadequacy to a world in which the needs of the young people were
not often listened to
...

Osborne’s target audience were young people, as he felt that the situations and the personality of his
characters perfectly mirrored the young people of the time, but his works were also suitable, nearly
a must, to middle age people, in order to get them to understand the needs and aspirations of the
young ones
...
It
is thought of sometimes with a sense of regret and sadness
...

The style of this place of Osborne is completely different than B’s style
...
The 2 men are reading the Sunday
newspapers, whereas the young lady is ironing (ironing board = cover of the book)
...

Therefore, there is a social class clash between the woman and the two men, although the three of
them are cultivated
...





In the 2nd, Alison is replaced by another female character, Helena, with whom Jimmy has a
relationship
...


Osborne’s characters find a solution to the boredom of life in a new dimension, which gives shelter,
protection to them
...
In the case of this play, the stage directions (especially at the
beginning) consist of a prose work that covers 2 pages
...
it is a way to

communicate with the audience
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BECKETT

OSBORNE

Plot

Obscure, non consequential

Setting
Themes

Symbolic, bare

True-to-life, consequential
It follows a logical line
House, flat

Meaninglessness of human
experience
Repetitive, frequent

Social critic against middleclass values
Detailed, informative, clear

Everyday, meaningless

Everyday, simple, clear
...

always reveals something
...
The plot is very simple, because it’s a circular movement
...
The 2 men are the
representation of the new middle class in Britain, those who did not rely on the cultural traditions
that were passed to them, but who created their own destiny
...
These
two visions emerge in the play by Osborne
...
The language is quite simple and naturalistic
...
) that do not make it revolutionary; what makes it new is
the approach it has towards some social and moral issues
...

When this play was performed in London, the comedies of manners of Restoration times were still
performed there, which means that he really changed the perspective from which everyday life was
look at

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